On this day

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, December 27th, back in 1861, Bakunin arrives in London after escaping from Siberia via Japan and the United States.

He had been caught in Dresden in 1849 and sentenced to the death penalty in January 1850. A sentence that was later commuted to life imprisonment.
Bakunin had lived more than 10 years in prison, spending some of them chained to the wall and in cold, damp conditions.
With his arrival in London in 1861 he again made contact with Ogarev and Herzen.

3 years later, French Proudhonian workers and some English workers created the AIT, International Workers Association to which Bakunin joined until 1868, being the one who fights the intellectual and organisational despotism of Marx and his accumulation of intriguers.

Mikhail Bakunin later died on July 1, 1876, leaving a philosophical and practical legacy for world anarchism.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 27th December 1831, the Christmas rebellion in Jamaica escalated as 60,000 of the British colony's 300,000 enslaved people went on strike and rose up against slavery.

It is known as the Christmas rebellion as it began with a strike on Christmas day, demanding wages and more free time. The plantation owners rejected the demands, and so on December 27th, enslaved people on the Kensington estate downed tools and set their sugarcane fields on fire. The rebels organised their own military units, and travelled through other estates, burning buildings and crops and recruiting others to join them.

Lasting 11 days, it was the biggest revolt of enslaved people in the British Caribbean colonies, and cost over £50 million damages in current money. While only 14 whites were killed, over 500 Black people were killed or executed in the aftermath. But as a result slavery across the British Caribbean was largely abolished two years later.

 

[A380]

Siege of Sidney Street 3 January 1911

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 4th January 1960 thousands of council tenants in St Pancras, London began a rent strike against rent increases by the Conservative council. As in most rent strikes, women played a leading role. The strike lasted 8 months and culminated in pitched battles with hundreds of police against evictions. Eventually Labour and the Communist Party persuaded tenants to change tack and instead elect a new Labour council who would reverse the increase - but they never did. However, concessions were achieved in the struggle.

This is a detailed history of the events: https://libcom.org/history/rent-strike-st-pancras-1960

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Siege of Sidney Street 3 January 1911

According to the Jewish anarchists who took the Latvians in, the Latvians were Bolsheviks and not anarchists and were nothing but trouble. They regretted having anything to do with them.

 

[Serge Forward]

That's interesting as I'd heard they were Latvian nationalists. The mystery continues...

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Should have posted this yesterday -

On the 7th January 1994, lifelong Jewish revolutionary Leah Feldman was cremated in London after dying aged approximately 94. Born around 1899 in Warsaw, Poland, she devoted her life to the self-emancipation of the working class. Feldman moved to London where she worked in clothing sweatshops in the East End, and became active in the Yiddish-speaking anarchist movement.

With the outbreak of revolution in Russia she travelled there, then moved south and joined the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of the Ukraine led by Nestor Makhno, preparing clothes and food for war orphans. Later in life Feldman organised anarchist groups in Palestine, raised money for the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, and supported anti-fascists in Spain during the civil war against the forces of general Francisco Franco.

Feldman began going blind, but continued her activism and in the 1960s smuggled weapons to anarchists in Spain who were continuing underground resistance to Franco. The Catalan anarchists nicknamed her "la yaya Makhnowista" ("the Makhnovist granny").

Feldman remained as active as her health allowed until the end, after at least eight decades of revolutionary activism.

See her short biography here: libcom.org/history/articles/1899-1993-leah-feldman

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 10th January 1859, Catalan educator and anarchist, Francesc Ferrer i Guàrdia was born. He is best known for his development of the idea of the Modern School: radical, secular education particularly for working class children, which remains influential around the world today.

Born the 13th of 14 children, Ferrer's formal education ended at the age of 13 when he began work, later working on the railways before becoming a Spanish teacher in France. At the age of 24 Ferrer became a Freemason, at a time when Masonic lodges where important organising spaces for secular radicals and anarchists.
In 1901 a wealthy student of Ferrer died and left him a property in Paris in her will, which Ferrer was able to sell to set up his first Modern School in Barcelona. The school opened in September 1901 with 18 boys and 12 girls, and Ferrer set about propagating its methodology elsewhere.

In 1909, a strike broke out in Barcelona in protest at the Spanish government sending poor and working class conscript soldiers to suppress an uprising against Spanish colonialism in Morocco. The events culminated in the Tragic Week, when civil guards violently crushed the strike. A major force behind the stoppage was the revolutionary group Solidaridad Obrera (Workers' Solidarity), which Ferrer had covertly funded. Despite Ferrer having minimal input into the strike itself, he was accused by the state of masterminding it, and was quickly sentenced to death by a kangaroo court and executed.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 10th January 1918, 200 housewives marched through working class districts of Barcelona calling textile workers – mostly women and girls – out on strike against the high cost of living. Strikes, demonstrations and attacks on shops and coal yards continued even until after a new military governor declared a state of siege and suspended civil rights.

This is a great account of working class women's protests in Spain in the early 20th century: https://libcom.org/.../female-consciousness-collective...

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Doh! Should have posted this yesterday -

On this day 12th January 1989, the punk subculture was identified as the primary problem in a "youth analysis" produced by the East German (DDR) government.
In the early 1980s authorities estimated there were around 1,000 punks in the country, and around 10,000 visibly identifiable punk sympathisers, who had developed a national network to exchange information and ideas, and had links with left wing and anarchist punks in West Germany.

Punks were surveilled by the Stasi intelligence service and the political police, forced to sign papers identifying themselves as potential criminals, routinely arrested and interrogated, beaten by police, had their mohawks cut off. They were banned from youth clubs, restaurants, cafes and bars, and often stripped of their identification documents and given replacement IDs which restricted travel within the DDR and prevented travel elsewhere in the Eastern Bloc. Some punks who could not be recruited as informants for the Stasi were badjacketed – i.e. rumours were spread by authorities that they were in fact informants.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 13th January 1919, there was a mutiny on the British Royal Navy patrol boat Kilbride at Milford Haven, which was to be sent to Russia to fight against the revolution. The sailors rebelled and hoisted the red flag. It was one of a series of mutinies and rebellions by British sailors around this time.

There is a short account of this and other naval mutinies of the time here: https://libcom.org/.../royal-navy-mutinies-british-1918






Pictured: the Kilbride, c1916

 

[AmateurAgitator]

 

[GarveyLives]

17 January 1960 ...

... Patrice Lumumba overthrown and murdered.

 

[GarveyLives]

 

[Puddy_Tat]

19 January 1917, fire and explosion and the Brunner Mond factory, Silvertown (making munitions with TNT)

The Silvertown Explosion | The History of London

During the First World War TNT was being purified at a factory in East London, close to the Royal Victoria Dock, to use in munitions for combat use. The disaster that occurred there in January 1917 holds the record of being the largest single explosion in London. Silvertown and North Woolwich is...

www.thehistoryoflondon.co.uk

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 30th January 1965, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's funeral took place. One of its most memorable moments was when cranes on the London docks dipped as his funeral barge went past. However, it later emerged that the dockworkers had originally refused to dip the cranes as they "didn't like" Churchill, and had to be paid extra to do it.

While typically depicted as a national hero today, in fact Churchill was hated by many, especially working class people, hence why he lost the 1945 election. And despite being presented as an anti-fascist, Churchill actually supported fascism. He declared that Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini was "a really great man", and wrote that he "whole-heartedly" supported Mussolini "from the start of the finish in [his] triumphant struggle against the bestial appetites and passions of Leninism [communism]", and supported Mussolini's invasion of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), describing the independent African nation as not "civilised".

Churchill also supported the military coup of general Francisco Franco and his fascist army in Spain, and wrote of his admiration for Adolf Hitler in Germany, with whom he also advocated appeasement until late in 1938, even after Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia. Churchill was also to blame jewish people for their predicament regarding persecution in Germany in an article in the Times that was never published.

In his younger days Churchill also opposed the vote being given to women, or working class men. Famously, he was a virulent racist, who supported using poison gas on civilians, and he sent troops against striking British workers. During World War II he was also a key architect of the manufactured Bengal famine, which killed between two and four million people. Churchill also sent the hated Black & Tans to Ireland during Ireland's War of Independence to murder, plunder and pillage. Burning Ireland's 3rd City of Cork during their stay.

This clip from Jeremy Paxman's documentary discusses Churchill's funeral and includes a former docker explaining why they didn't want to lower their cranes for him:

 

[platinumsage]

It's all kicking off today: Churchill's funeral, Bloody Sunday, Hitler taking office, Cromwell's execution, Charles I's execution, the Tet offensive, Ghandi assassinated, Andrew Jackson assassination attempt etc

Is Today Cursed? Why January 30 Is The Worst Day In History

Gandhi is killed, Hitler becomes Chancellor, and more. January 30th is the worst.

allthatsinteresting.com

 

[rubbershoes]

It may be out of character with the previous posts, but we could all take a quiet moment and consider that on this day in 1988, Tiffany topped the UK charts with I Think We're Alone Now.

Momentous times, indeed

 

[not a trot]

It may be out of character with the previous posts, but we could all take a quiet moment and consider that on this day in 1988, Tiffany topped the UK charts with I Think We're Alone Now.

Momentous times, indeed

The Beatles performed their famous rooftop concert on this day in 1969.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

The Beatles performed their famous rooftop concert on this day in 1969.

Yeah but they were the Beatles. They were shite. So it doesn't matter.

 

[krtek a houby]

Yeah but they were the Beatles. They were shite. So it doesn't matter.

Tis often and easily said, but far from the case.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Tis often and easily said, but far from the case.

All I know is that myself, and many others with good taste in music, never feel the need to listen to them - because such a need does not exist. There are many who consider it to be the case that Oasis are a great band, just as an example, but they too are very wrong. Not that I wish to derail this thread into the realm of the Beatles or music in general.

 

[krtek a houby]

All I know is that myself, and many others with good taste in music, never feel the need to listen to them - because such a need does not exist. Not that I wish to derail this thread into the realm of the Beatles or music in general.

Fair enough. But that's an opinion. It doesn't signify "good taste in music". Whatever that means...

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Fair enough. But that's an opinion. It doesn't signify "good taste in music". Whatever that means...

It's a correct opinion.

 

[AmateurAgitator]

Also on this day in 1984, Luke Kelly - probably Ireland's greatest folk singer - died at the age of 43.

 

[A380]

The Beatles wrote more good songs than Charles I, Cromwell and Gandhi combined.

 

[krtek a houby]

It's a correct opinion.

It's your opinion. Because you believe you have "good taste"

 

[krtek a houby]

Also on this day in 1984, Luke Kelly - probably Ireland's greatest folk singer - died at the age of 43.

imho, it's a toss up between himself & Christy Moore.

 

[platinumsage]

Guy Fawkes was executed today

 

[AmateurAgitator]

On this day, 31th January 1919, striking workers fought police in the centre of Glasgow and the army was deployed to restore order. The strikers demanded the working week be reduced from 54 to 40 hours, to create jobs for demobilised soldiers and increase workers’ leisure time.

The strike began on Monday 27 January, and by Friday 31st, 60,000 workers had downed tools. The newspapers were outraged: The Scotsman referred to “Terrorism on the Clyde” and the Glasgow Herald claimed the workers were deploying “the methods of terrorism.” On this day, upwards of 60,000 protesters gathered in George Square and sang “The Red Flag.” The Glasgow Evening News described what happened next: “The police found it necessary to make a baton charge, and strikers and civilians - men, women, and children - were felled in the melée that followed.”

Initially overwhelmed, the workers quickly retaliated and forced the police back. A turning point in the battle came when a lorry carrying glass bottles was trapped by the crowd. As the strikers began to pelt the police with stones and bottles, many police broke ranks and fled. Led by demobilised servicemen, the workers then marched to Glasgow Green, where they were again attacked by the police. This time they uprooted iron railings and counter-charged. The violence continued until late into the night, and the Secretary of State for Scotland famously told the War Cabinet, “It is a misnomer to call this situation in Glasgow a strike - this is a Bolshevist uprising."
So the following morning, while the local regiment were confined in their barracks, 10,000 troops entered the city. With tanks and machine-gun detachments set up in key locations and thousands of soldiers patrolling the streets, the militancy of the strike was annulled.

On Monday 10 February, after the employers agreed to a 7-hour reduction in the working week, the strike was called off.